Binance Discontinues All Services for Nigerian Naira After Employees Detained by Government and Threatened With Fine

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume is discontinuing support for the largest economy in Africa’s national currency.

Late last week, the government of Nigeria demanded nearly $10 billion from Binance, alleging that the crypto exchange manipulated the exchange rate of its fiat currency.

According to local reports, the Nigerian government slapped Binance with a $10 billion fine, claiming that the top global crypto exchange manipulated foreign exchange rates to the point where the naira  fell 70%.

Recently, a Nigerian lawmaker accused Binance of serious violations of law, according to a report by the Punch newspaper.

The Punch report quoted the chairman of Nigeria’s House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes, Ginger Onwusibe, saying that the country’s constitution allows lawmakers to “protect Nigerians from financial crimes, especially by foreign companies”.

Now, potentially in response to the Nigerian government’s allegations and the arrest of several Binance employees, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume is discontinuing services for the Nigerian naira.

“Binance will discontinue all Nigerian Naira (NGN) services as per the timeline below.

Users are encouraged to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto prior to the discontinuation of these NGN services. 

From 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to USDT based on the conversion rate below.”

At time of writing, Bitcoin is currently worth 100,842,650 NGN, and is up about 800% in the last year in the Nigerian fiat currency.

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